#8 of the 101 Ways to Love Your Job

Stress Management Defined

What happens when we finally make up our minds that we are a valuable tool in our own lives? That we need the same type of preventive maintenance as our computers or our cars? What might our activities look like once the thought that we have individual and unique value and should be treated as something with value has settled in for good?

Perhaps your activities will look something like this:

When you decide to eat differently, it will not be just to lose weight and then resort back to family-sized bags of potato chips in one sitting. You will eat what you like and you will eat what makes you feel good afterward (vs. tired or nauseous). If you do not like lowfat rice cakes, find what you do like and what you know is quality fuel and eat that instead.

You will sleep because it's fun to sleep. It feels good to wake up rested. To see how much sleep you need, it is recommended that you note the time you go to sleep on a day when you don't have to be up at any particular time. Once you awaken naturally, note the time and the number of hours you slept. This is the correct amount of sleep for you.*

Take time to slow down and check in with yourself, silently and often. You may write or just close your eyes and breathe, but do not let your day get away from you through others' demands or your own unreasonable expectations without checking in with yourself.

This is ultimately stress management.



*Normal sleep times vary from six to ten hours. Experts typically state eight hours as the norm because it falls in the middle of these two extremes. You may need more. How do you know if you're sleep deprived? One clue: you don't remember your dreams.

My website has more info on stress....see Work-Stress-Solutions.Com. Go to articles, worksheets, stress tests or listen to binaural beats.